NEWS AND ITEMS. 
MEAT INSPECTION INVESTIGATION. 
Dr. A. D. Melvin, Chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry 
at Washington, who is at the head of the Government meat in¬ 
spection service, states that the Bureau has nothing to fear from 
a fair and thorough investigation of the inspection. 
“ The resolution introduced in Congress by Representative 
Nelson,” says Dr. Melvin, “ contains a number of false assump¬ 
tions based on ignorance or misrepresentation of the facts. It 
appears that the charges are inspired by professional agitators, 
aided by disgruntled and discredited ex-employees who have 
been dismissed from the service. Most of these charges were 
made two and a half years ago by Mrs. Caroline Bartlett Crane 
before the American Public Health Association, and she was 
unable to sustain them to the satisfaction of the executive com¬ 
mittee of that association. The charges are also partly based 
on statements made by Dr. Albert Leffingwell in a book on 
‘American Meat,’ published by him in England in 1910, a book 
abounding in misrepresentations and distorted quotations from 
official publications. 
“ Aside from the attack on the integrity of the officials ad¬ 
ministering the service, the main question at issue is simply 
whether the inspection should be based on principles determined 
iby eminent scientists the world over who- have thoroughly 
studied the subject, or on the sentimental notions of faddists. 
In 1907 the regulations were carefully gone over by a commis¬ 
sion of distinguished scientific experts outside of the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture, who reported that ‘ if there be any general 
error in the regulation this is in favor of the public rather than 
in favor of the butchers and packers.’ The present regulations 
conform to the views of that commission except that they are 
even more strict in some respects than the commission thought 
necessary. 
“ Perhaps the most striking evidence that the meat inspec¬ 
tion has not deteriorated is the fact that percentage of condem- 
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